Despite boasting one of rock’s most brilliant voices, Halestorm’s ability to craft truly timeless memorable stadium-fillers was initially a little uncertain.
The decent The Strange Case Of… went some distance in readdressing that in 2012, but with Into The Wild Life the quartet have come of age spectacularly, unleashing an album brimming with anthems.
From the assertive, fearless opening call-to-arms of Scream to the stomp and swagger of I Am The Fire, Amen and I Like It Heavy; the funky, soulful jam of New Modern Love and the fuzzy, chunky riffage of Sick Individual (shout out for that Sabbath-aping riff at the start, too), there’s enough great material here to fill a greatest hits set.
Even the ballads kick ass, with Dear Daughter in particular a wonderfully orchestrated, delicately executed ode to the struggles of womanhood, Lzzy every inch the confident, inspirational – and, it’s worth reaffirming, demonically talented – frontwoman she was born to be.
While occasionally stumbling into ‘rawk’’s tendency for lazy lyrics (surely we can do better than ‘A fire’s gonna burn/The world is gonna turn/Rain is gonna fall/Fate is gonna call’, guys), this is otherwise an absolute knockout. World domination seems inevitable./o:p
